What the Future Holds
by WastefulReverie
Summary: After Maddie Fenton's first solo trip to the Ghost Zone met some unfortunate circumstances, she wakes up back home in Amity Park... but not exactly in her time. (Kinda) Revelation story.
1. Chapter One

To this day, Maddie Fenton had never actually been inside her most esteemed invention, the Fenton Ghost Portal, which was a controlled doorway to the ghost dimension. Well, to be fair, it wasn't really _her_ invention. She had worked together with her husband, Jack, to modify the designs and actually construct it over the course of about a year.

Now, nearly two years after it became operational, Maddie found herself finally jumping straight into the deep end. Of course, she had been prepared. In the time since she and Jack had created the portal, they did many methodical and lengthy tests about the components of the atmosphere. She hadn't informed Jack yet, but she had finally completed the last test and had deemed the air (yes, _air_ ) breathable.

She knew it was foolish, but Maddie hadn't yet informed her family of her planned expedition. She loved her husband... but his brash and extremely trigger-happy behaviors were a liability in the Ghost Zone. Maddie had vowed to herself that she was there for observation and research purposes _only_ , and she would only defend herself against ghosts if she was engaged first. She was a ghost hunter, she wasn't a suicidal maniac insane enough to purposely pick fights with ghosts in their own territory.

So one morning when her children were away at school and Jack was on a two-day camping trip, Maddie climbed into the Specter Speeder. She gingerly clasped on her safety belt and double checked the emergency supplies she had packed. She had left an emergency note upstairs for Danny and Jazz to find if she hadn't returned by the time they got back from school. But chances are, it would never come to this. She had planned a short surveillance trip around the location of their portal in a 3 mile radius. By her calculations, it would take an hour at the most and she would be back home in plenty of time. So with no further ado, Maddie turned the ignition, and flew straight into the glowing green portal harbored in her basement.

The Ghost Zone looked exactly how it had on the camera probes she and Jack had sent into the portal. Endless black and green sky, floating purple doors simply hanging in place, and the silhouettes of ghostly islands on the horizon. To say Maddie was amazed was an understatement. She was actually here in the dimension of the dead; this was the peak of her life's work! She could've sat in the driver's seat for hours, perplexed with the abnormal beauty she found in the Ghost Zone, but she had work to do. So for the next few minutes Maddie sped along a circular path around the portal, occasionally slowing down to scratch a few notes in her observation journal. Oh, she and Jack were going to have a field day with all this new information!

However, after about twenty minutes of circling in the Speeder, she heard a familiar voice echoing somewhere outside her vehicle.

"-then will you just _stay_ in the Ghost Zone!" cried a young boy's exasperated voice. "I'm in school right now! I'm completely sick of having to ditch class every hour on the hour to deal with you!"

"The Box Ghost will not heed to the convenience of your schedule!"

At this point, Maddie had already figured that this was an exchange between Amity Park's false 'hero', Danny Phantom and her second greatest enemy, the Box Ghost. Her suspicions were confirmed with the boy's next words.

"You _will_ leave me alone if you don't want me to 'accidentally' leave you in the Thermos for two weeks!" the boy threatened.

Maddie had adjusted her mirrors, and now could see the pair of ghosts floating somewhere behind and below her.

The Box Ghost gasped, "Not the cylindrical death trap! _Anything_ but that!"

From Maddie's view, she saw Phantom smirk, "Then just leave me alone for the rest of the school day, and preferably the rest of my life."

With those words, Phantom turned away from the Box Ghost and started floating towards where Maddie was temporarily parked. His face twisted in an expression of confusion before adopting one of concern(?). He raced towards the Specter Speeder, his legs blurring into a spectral tail. Maddie attempted to start the vehicle in a hopeless effort to distance herself from the approaching ghost. Though, her movements weren't quick enough. Before Maddie had a chance to process the world around her, Phantom was outside the window of the Specter Speeder, gesturing her to roll down the window.

Even though most of the town praised Phantom for his heroics, Maddie wasn't one to be fooled. He was still just a ghost, an ectoplasmic being bound to existence by a malevolent obsession to fulfill. Therefore, he couldn't be trusted. Ghosts were dangerous and unpredictable, especially ones with no clear obsession like Phantom. And while it may appear that he's 'saving the town' as many believe, he could easily turn at any moment and harm the citizens. Normally, she tried to maim or apprehend him particularly because he was so _different_ from most ghosts. By nonetheless, she had taken an oath not to fight any ghosts unless absolutely necessary. So with that thought in mind, Maddie obliged, and warily rolled down the window a good three inches.

"What do you want?" Maddie demanded.

"To know why you're here," he responded quickly. "It's _not safe_ for humans to be here."

She furrowed her brow, "Was that a threat, Phantom?"

"What? No! No, no threats here. I'm just saying that you shouldn't be here because there's a lot of ghosts that could seriously hurt you. You need to go home, _now_ ," Phantom rambled.

"What _I_ do isn't your business, ghost," Maddie spat, rolling up the window. Who was he to tell her to abandon _her_ research? He came into the human world all the time, why should she be prohibited to be in the Ghost Zone? Maddie hovered her foot over the acceleration and started to fly away from the pestering ghost. About thirty seconds passed, and there was no sign of Phantom in her rear-view mirrors, thank the Lord for that.

Suddenly, there was a noise in the back of the Speeder, and Maddie turned, seeing nothing. She gave a sigh of relief, she had been worried for a second. It was then she felt a cold presence behind her, and shrieked when she saw that Phantom had somehow managed to stowaway aboard the Specter Speeder! But that was impossible! There was an active Ghost Shield around the entire vehicle, there was no possible way that he could've gotten in!

"How'd you get on here?!" she screamed at him, reaching for her nearest blaster. Screw not harming any ghosts on this expedition, this truly _was_ an act of self-defense. Ghosts were not supposed to be inside the Speeder.

"It doesn't matter," he said. "If you could just – put the weapon _down_ – maybe we could talk this out. I don't want to hurt you!"

"It _does_ matter," Maddie spoke lowly, "because that means somehow you knew how to breach my defenses."

"I didn't breach anything! It was a thing only I can do, so don't worry. I just came aboard because you left me back there, and I was _serious_ about you going home. It's not safe for you here because you're human," he said.

"And what're you gonna do about it?" she asked. "I'm not leaving the Ghost Zone until I've collected all the data I need for today."

"If you'd just listen to me, this part of the Ghost Zone has a lot of testy ghosts who have a grudge against the Specter Speeder-"

"They've never even seen the Speeder, Phantom! This is the first time it's been inside the portal, so you're not fooling me. Unless, of course, you're suggesting someone else in my family has been making secret trips into the Ghost Zone."

At those words, Maddie noticed that Phantom tensed up. "Look, I'm just a ghost. All I know is that people will recognize this vehicle, and when they do things won't look good for you. I'm just trying to keep you safe before anything happens!"

Maddie scowled, "I don't believe you."

A broken look of hurt graced Phantom's face. "Then you give me no choice," he whispered. Without any warning, he lunged forward and took hold of the controls of the Specter Speeder. He managed to direct the vehicle off of Maddie's route and back towards the portal.

"No you don't!" Maddie yelled. She moved to the back of the Speeder and found another panel full of emergency defenses. She selected a yellow button and slammed it as hard as she could. Instantly, Phantom was propelled out of the Speeder and thrown haphazardly into the Ghost Zone. Maddie smiled to herself, she knew that the 'ghost eject button' would come in handy.

She hardly had time to celebrate her victory before the Speeder started spinning wildly. Nobody was at the front driving, causing it to catapult out of control. Maddie didn't have to brace herself as the Speeder approached a swirling green portal that had appeared suddenly. As the portal swallowed her, she heard a voice in the distance call out, "Mom! No!" (Was that Danny?)

And then in a painful headache, Maddie's consciousness was consumed by darkness.

* * *

 **As of October 9th, 2017, this is currently unedited.**

 **Okay, so I've had this idea for a while and I'm excited to finally write it! It'll probably take me a while to come out with the next chapter, so don't expect it anytime soon. At the moment, my other book, _The Misadventures of Wes Weston_ , is my main priority.**


	2. Chapter Two

The first thing that Maddie noticed as she slowly awakened from her slumber was that everything was strangely warm, contrasting greatly to the vacant chill of the Ghost Zone. It then occurred to her that she was on the ground, laying in grass. _Grass_. There shouldn't be any warmth or vegetation in the Ghost Zone, so... where was she?

Maddie's head pounded as she forced her eyelids to peel open, revealing overwhelming sunlight, causing her to quickly shut her eyes once again to relieve herself of the headache. It felt like someone was digging inside her head from the inside out with a bunch of tiny, dull butter knives. Unfortunately, the physical pain didn't prevent Maddie from thinking at 100 mph, so she naturally began to grow curious – concerned was the more appropriate word – about her whereabouts. She realized that she would have to face the harsh daylight at some point, so Maddie hesitantly opened her eyes for the second time.

She was lying straight on her back, facing the sky above her. She saw a few trees at the edge of her vision, and now that the headache was starting to dull, she could hear faint human voices in the distance. With a great effort, she managed to heft herself into a sitting position. Her limbs felt heavy and stiff, which made her wonder even more how long she had been left lying in the grass.

Looking around, she recognized that she was sitting in the center of Amity Park's public park. This puzzled her, because she was pretty sure she had remembered all of the events leading up to her falling unconscious. Phantom breaking into the Specter Speeder, her abandoning the controls to eject him from the vehicle, and the Speeder spiraling into the green portal. She felt like she had missed something important, because there was no explanation for why she was alone in the middle of the park, without the Specter Speeder.

"Are you okay, Lady?" a voice said directly into her ear.

Maddie jumped in surprise, and found a little boy no older than seven years old looking at her with wide eyes. Now that she thought about it, he hadn't been anywhere near her ear, the noise had just registered louder than it actually was. The boy nervously looked down at his shoes, "You look a little freaked out."

"I – I'm fine," Maddie said, hoarsely. "Just a little lost. Would you happen to know what happened?"

The boy shook his head. "It could have been a ghost attack," he suggested. "Those happen a lot. But we always have Team Phantom to protect us."

"' _Team Phantom_...'" Maddie drawled, "I thought it was just one ghost, Danny Phantom. Not a team."

The boy chuckled, "Well, most of the time, it _is_ just Danny Phantom. But whenever there's something too powerful for just him, his team helps out. And sometimes they just do it for fun. They're the best ghost hunters in the world!"

Maddie narrowed her eyes, "I see."

The last time she had checked, she and her husband were the best and most recognized ghost hunters in the world, or in America anyway. Not to mention, she had never even heard of anyone helping Phantom. As far as anyone knew, he was a complete lone wolf. But the confidence this young boy had in his statements, suggested that he was speaking common knowledge. Strange...

"Yeah," the boy continued, "I wanna join them one day! I wanna be the bestest ghost hunter there is and help Phantom! I wanna save the world like he has and-"

Maddie scoffed, "Saved the world?"

"Yeah, Phantom's saved the world. Everyone knows about it, and they even taught me about it in school. The Disasteroid, about six years ago – I was a baby when it happened. Basically, this evil ghost sent this ghost-hurting asteroid towards Earth that was gonna destroy everything, when Phantom showed up and stopped it! It was the coolest thing ever! He's a hero, and that's why I wanna be like him!"

Maddie froze, her mind reeling with new information and theories. _The boy had said it happened six years ago, so that suggests that I've somehow time traveled into the future. But how?! And how_ far _into the future?_

Maddie gulped, "W – what year is it?"

The boy raised an eyebrow, "Are you sure you're not feeling funny, Lady?"

"Positive," Maddie whispered.

"2013," the boy said simply, "what year did you think it was?"

Maddie started to panic. _It was supposed to be 2006. The portal in the Ghost Zone had sent her seven years into the future._

"Uh," she said numbly, "thank you..."

"Brandon," the boy supplied.

"Yes," she said, "thank you, Brandon. But I have to check something now, so I have to leave."

And with that, Maddie started walking away from the boy as quick as possible, straying closer to the edge of the park, where there were more people on the sidewalks. Feeling out of place, Maddie made sure her hood and goggles were still covering her face. Not that it mattered anyway, most people recognized her for her signature HAZMAT suit and constant reliance of weaponry in the first place. All that Maddie knew was that she had to get out of this time as soon as possible, and the only person that could possibly help, was herself.

 _But,_ Maddie's mind whispered to her, _what if there isn't a version of yourself in this future. What if you never make it back to your own time, trapping yourself here, and thus making you the only Maddie Fenton in this time._

No. She would make it back to her own time, _she had to_. She had a family, a family that needed her. And no matter what, she would not let them down.

In her reverie, Maddie had failed to take notice of her surroundings, as well as the nearby pedestrians swarming the streets. It was this mistake, that lead to Maddie being cornered by a familiar face – the _last_ face she ever wanted to see. An aged Pamela Manson. It seemed so out of place to Maddie, for Pamela to just walk up to Maddie on the street and start speaking (clearly mistaking her for her future counterpart, so luckily, that answered her question about whether she would return to the past).

Pamela approached Maddie, expression full of momentary surprise, "Madeline? What are you doing here, just wandering about? Has something gone wrong with making the reservations? Have you finally changed your mind about letting my Sammy have a traditional Jewish wedding? I know she said that she prefers a regular outdoor wedding, but-"

Maddie choked, "Wedding?"

"Yes..." Pamela said, " _the wedding_. Today you and your daughter were supposed to be at home planning. It would just mean so _much_ to me if Sammykins re-approached her decision. She may not appreciate it now, but she'll be grateful for having a Jewish wedding, just as I did. Danny doesn't seem to mind either way, so..."

Maddie didn't have time to spare fretting about the fact that her son was getting _married to his best-friend_ seven years into the future, so she responded with something that would sure be a conversation closer for Pamela, "Well," Maddie said, "that seems to me, that you need to discuss some things with your daughter."

And then, Maddie continued walking down the street, towards FentonWorks, and away from Pamela Manson's drama.

* * *

The entire situation was bizarre. Maddie, seven years in the future, strolled down the street to her house in an alien-like casual posture. Yes, she was internally freaking out, but if she could pretend that she wasn't, it would make the task at hand _so_ much easier. So, attempting to keep a blank mind, Maddie found herself outside the chestnut colored building, which was almost identical to the present-day version she was familiar with. The Ops Center still loomed over the entire street, paired with the haze of the neon sign that clearly dictated 'FentonWorks'.

There were some minuscule differences, as expected over the passage of time. The windows were all shielded with blinds, not allowing an easy view into the house as Maddie was accustomed to. There was also a different front door, apparently with a new security system integrated above the entrance (Maddie was able to notice the small camera over the door immediately).

Taking a shaky breath, a throwing all prior mental preparation out of the metaphorical window, Maddie stepped forward and hesitantly rung her own doorbell. She stood there, for a good fifteen seconds before she heard someone audibly fumbling with the doorknob. And before she knew what hit her, Maddie caught voices from the inside of the house, "-must be my delivery. I ordered one of those Kindle Paperwhite things online..."

And with that, the door swung open, revealing an older version of Jazz. She was wearing a lime green sweatshirt with the words 'Disasterversary Remembrance 2011' and regular blue jeans. Her hair was shoulder length, almost rivaling Maddie's, and her trademark headband was absent. Her face was slightly slimmer, presenting seven years of aging. Nonetheless, it was still Jazz, and Maddie didn't doubt it for a moment.

Jazz's face turned to one of confusion, before accepting an expression of familiarity. Maddie knew that face, it was her 'I know exactly what's going on' face. She turned around in a swift motion, addressing the occupants of the house, "Mom! That shapeshifter ghost showed up again! Where's Danny?"

"Do you mean Amorpho?" Maddie heard her own voice question from somewhere in the house. "What's he doing back? I thought everything went smoothly when Danny helped him restore his core last week."

Maddie almost fell backwards when she saw her own future (faintly wrinkled) face behind Jazz, gazing at her unimpressed. " _Hilarious_ ," future Maddie rolled her eyes, "Impersonating me. What originality, Amorpho."

"I – I'm not," Maddie stuttered. _How the heck was she supposed to say this?_

"Is this a new attention seeking tactic you're trying? Come on, I thought we all had a truce," Jazz said, ready to close the door on her.

"I'm not a ghost!" Maddie burst out with such ferocity that even surprised herself. "I – I'm you. I crashed into a portal, and somehow ended up seven years in the future." To prove her point, Maddie lifted her hood, revealing her face. "And I need your help to get back to my own time."

Future Maddie was stiff for a moment, before redirecting her attention to her watch. After examining it for around ten seconds, she looked to her daughter with a strained voice. "No ghosts detected, which means that it's actually me, my actual past self."

To Maddie's puzzlement, Jazz let out an exasperated groan, "Great. _More_ time travel. Clockwork's gonna be pissed."

* * *

 **I don't know if it's exactly what you guys were expecting, but I actually really like how this turned out (which is rare for me). I hope the difference between the two Maddies isn't confusing. In the next chapter, I'll try to make it more clear. On another note, thank you for all the reviews I've gotten on this story lately. I'll try to update within a reasonable amount of time, but right now I have two other stories that I'm working on at the moment.**


	3. Chapter Three

**To clear confusion: p'Maddie = past Maddie ... f'Maddie = future Maddie**

* * *

p'Maddie sat awkwardly at her own kitchen table, grasping one of her favorite coffee mugs until her hands turned white. She sat across from her future self, looking everywhere but into her own, aged eyes. Meanwhile, Jazz was rummaging through the fridge looking for snacks. The girl honestly seemed unaffected by the presence of a younger version her mother – but p'Maddie assumed that her calm facade was most likely from years of perfecting the act of dissociating herself to the weirdness in her life.

p'Maddie noted that her future self also seemed to be having a difficult time facing her counterpart, and had taken it upon herself to stare inside her own coffee mug. An awkward silence hung in the room until Jazz sat down at the table with lime and vinegar chips, cottage cheese, and ghost-shaped animal crackers and boldly declared, "So... who's gonna start talking?"

p'Maddie sighed, "I guess I will." She turned to f'Maddie, "Do you happen to remember any of this from when you were me? Because if you do... then that way we can figure out what to do to get me back."

f'Maddie threw a sideways glance at Jazz, "I don't remember anything about time traveling. I guess we can assume that it never happened in this specific timestream, or something happened to my memories so I don't remember coming here. If it's the latter, then I suppose we don't have to worry about revealing too much information about your future, because you'll forget it anyway."

"From hearing about Danny's experiences with time travel, it's probably the second one. Clockwork is thorough with memory resets," Jazz elaborated.

p'Maddie was confused, "That's the second time you've mentioned that person... 'Clockwork'? So who are they? And what do you mean, Danny's time traveled before?"

"Clockwork is the ghost of time," Jazz said simply. "There have been a few... incidents... between Danny and him."

"' _Ghost_ of time'," p'Maddie scrunched up her face, "what's Danny doing associating with _ghosts_?"

p'Maddie was horribly taken aback when Jazz and her future self starting laughing. "I forgot how clueless I was back then," f'Maddie told her daughter. "If only I could've seen..."

"It's fine, Mom," Jazz reassured. "There were a _lot_ of people who should've figured it out but didn't at the time."

"Excuse me," p'Maddie intervened, "clueless about what?"

"It's not that important," Jazz replied cooly. "What _is_ important is figuring out how to get you back to your own time."

"I've already texted your brother," f'Maddie said. "He'll know what to do."

"Yeah, but he's at the movies with Sam right now, so his phone's probably off. That means we'll have to wait about two hours before he gets home."

"Well, what about the emergency transmitter in his watch?" f'Maddie suggested.

"He'll probably be a little pissed," Jazz said, "because last time the transmitter was activated, it was because Dad wanted him to phase out his emergency fudge that he keeps in the walls."

"Jack," f'Maddie cursed, "he _knows_ that's for ghost emergencies only!"

"Well," Jazz said, "I'm pretty sure _this_ situation classifies as an emergency."

p'Maddie watched this exchange with growing curiosity. There were so many questions forming in her mind that it was slightly overwhelming. Why did Danny have a ghost emergency transmitter in his watch? What did Jazz mean 'phase the fudge out of the wall'? Did this have to do with Danny's relationship with that time ghost?

f'Maddie sighed, and finally met p'Maddie's eyes, "You stay here with Jazz, I'll be right back. I hate to ruin Danny's date though..."

She left the kitchen, and presumably walked into the living room. p'Maddie was left alone with a future version of her daughter and more awkward silence.

"So uh," Jazz started, "you must be _really_ confused."

"Very," p'Maddie agreed.

"A lot happens in the next seven years, trust me. But it was mainly good stuff, and we went through a lot of stuff that really tested the strength of our family. I won't really go into details though..."

"Is that so?" Maddie asked dryly, "Because from the looks of it, not much has changed around here," she gestured to her nearly identical kitchen. "Even the old ectocooker is still here."

Jazz giggled, "Well we only keep that because Danny likes the ectoplasmic aftertaste. Guess it comes with..." she hesitated, "...with his weird affinity for ethnic flavors."

"You were about to say something else," Maddie said, knowingly.

With a look a defeat, Jazz admitted, "I was. But that's not going to make me tell you what it was, because it's probably something you'd be better off not knowing for the time being. After all, there's still a chance that you'll still retain your memory when you return to your own time."

Maddie pursed her lips, "And this information that you're talking about... it's about Danny?"

"Yes," Jazz nodded, "it is."

Maddie decided to stop prying for answers and turned to a different topic, "So Danny... he's engaged to Sam?"

Jazz grinned, "You picked up on that fairly quickly."

"Well, on the way here, I may have a brief encounter with Pamela..."

"Oh," Jazz said, eyes widening, " _Oh_. Did she try to force you to agree to a Jewish wedding?"

"Yep," Maddie nodded. "I wouldn't mind, but Pamela should really try to respect the bride's wishes, and something tells me Sam doesn't exactly want what her mother is proposing."

After that she and Jazz started to discuss the plans for the wedding. The venue, the color scheme, the flowers, the cake, Sam's dress, the rings, the photographer, etc. However, there was one obvious slip-up Jazz made that uneasily stuck in Maddie's mind.

Jazz had said something about how it had become difficult to keep journalists from inviting themselves to the wedding by using media blackmail... Maddie knew that the Mansons were rich, but she doubted that Sam's marriage to Danny would interest the news and she couldn't think of any other reason that any journalist would have to be present at her son's wedding. Another thing that scared her was how Jazz had just casually mentioned 'media blackmail'. What did that even mean?

About five minutes after f'Maddie had left the kitchen, p'Maddie almost fell out of her chair when a black and white blur shot out of the wall. When p'Maddie regained her bearings, she narrowed her eyes with a scowl. _Him. The same ghost that had gotten her into this mess_. Danny Phantom floated passively in front of her with a neutral expression on his face... he hadn't seemed to notice her yet and was directing his attention towards Jazz.

"I got the signal, what's the emergency?" Phantom asked Jazz. In hesitant response, Jazz flicked her eyes over to p'Maddie.

Phantom followed Jazz's gaze and found himself looking at a younger version of his mother, "Wha-?"

p'Maddie growled at him, "You did this to me, ghost."

"Jazz, what's going on?" Phantom's voice came out clipped and panicked.

f'Maddie had walked back into the kitchen, surveying the scene. "Apparently, my past self crashed into a portal in the Ghost Zone and time traveled seven years into the future and has no way of getting back." She looked at Phantom with an expression that p'Maddie was unable to read, "I sent my _son_ a SOS a few minutes ago. He should be here _any minute now_."

"Huh?" Phantom asked, before processing the double meaning in her words. "Oh... oh, then I'll just, fly out of here, for now... Good luck getting her home."

Phantom vanished, leaving p'Maddie more confused than before. "What the hell was that?" she asked.

Jazz and f'Maddie had no time to answer when future Danny crashed through the front door. Unlike their previous intruder, Danny picked up on the situation fairly quickly, "So... time travel?" p'Maddie was baffled at how fast Danny had leaped to that conclusion, almost like he'd been in the room the entire time.

"Yep," Jazz confirmed, "do you have any idea how to get her back?"

"I... did you say this happened seven years ago?" Danny questioned, suddenly.

"Yeah, about one year before the Disasteroid stuff," Jazz explained. She narrowed her eyes, "What're you thinking?"

"I think I remember this happening seven years ago," Danny said quietly, "and if I'm right, we don't have to do anything, and everything will sort itself out."

"That seems _too_ easy," f'Maddie voiced.

"Well," Danny laughed, "I guess you can say that all the hard work is in the past."

"Will you stop being so cryptic and explain," Jazz deadpanned. "I swear, if Vlad taught you anything it was how to be suspiciously over-dramatic."

"Okay, fine," Danny resigned. "This won't make any sense to her," he glanced at p'Maddie, "but when she crashed into the portal that brought her here seven years ago, I went to Clockwork. He gave me a time medallion and zapped me into the future, which is now, to get her back. I think at that point, she'd already figured out my secret, so Clockwork agreed to wipe her memories so to timeline would stay intact."

Danny was right, his explanation made no sense to her at all. Somehow his past self, the Danny from her time, had found out she had time traveled and had went to a time-ghost for help. That didn't make any sense because her Danny didn't even know any ghosts! And what secret would she figure out during her time in the future, and what made it so important for her to completely forget it? She suddenly felt very uncomfortable.

"So you're saying that we don't have to keep lying to her, because whatever she learns in this time, will be erased from her memory?" Jazz asked tentatively.

At that point, p'Maddie's stomach was violently twisting in circles. She hated the idea of her mind being tampered with, of losing information, not even knowing that part of her memory was even missing. That part of her was why she always went light on alcohol consumption and completely stayed away from drugs – she couldn't just lose a part of herself, lose experiences. It was demeaning, and she didn't even understand the circumstances they were discussing in tampering with her memory.

"What if I don't want my memory to be erased?" she asked, drawing the attention back to her.

Jazz and Danny shared a look before f'Maddie turned to her, "Look, you may not understand or accept it, but take it from your future self, you're better off forgetting what you learn here. You're not ready to remember it, I know I wasn't when I was in your position."

"So what if I just avoid learning anything that could screw up the future? That way I don't _need_ to have my memory erased. Would that work?" p'Maddie asked.

"It could work... but it would be difficult," Jazz said. "It's like expecting a baby not to learn how to talk after long periods of time of listening to speech patterns."

"What she's saying, is that it's obvious," Danny summed up.

"Exactly," Jazz clarified, "I can respect that you don't want to have your memory altered or taken away, and we can attempt to keep you in the dark if it's what will guarantee you all your memories, but some things you _shouldn't_ be allowed to remember."

"So what you're saying is," p'Maddie asked, "that for my memory not to be erased, I should stay away from learning certain information that can change time? And that if I learn it anyway, my memory _will_ be erased."

"Exactly," Jazz confirmed.

"So for the moment, we're keeping 'the secret' a secret as a precaution because... past Mom doesn't want to have her memory erased?"

"That's what I just said, Danny," Jazz retorted.

"Seems simple, but I don't know if it'll work out," Danny says, "but if I've learned anything about time travel is that it's not always set in stone, so maybe it'll work out."

"So now we're just waiting for Danny, from seven years ago, to arrive?" f'Maddie asked.

"Yep," Danny answered. "And on that note, I'm going back to the movies with Sam. She's kinda pissed at me because Valerie was supposed to give me the day off... see you later." He walked out the door leaving just Jazz and the two Maddies alone in the kitchen.

"So what now?" f'Maddie asked.

Jazz shrugged, "Before you arrived we were working on the wedding plans, so you can help us if you'd like."

"Well, since we're left waiting, I don't see why not," p'Maddie said.

* * *

 **Currently edited as of December 29th, 2017.**


	4. Chapter Four

**Please reread the chapter before this, I've changed it slightly to make more sense because I didn't like the first version very well. Thanks.**

* * *

The three spent the next hour discussing the wedding plans, along with p'Maddie recounting recent events from her time to remind the future mother and daughter what their lives had been like seven years ago. However, their conversation was cut short by the arrival of Jack who had been out grocery shopping and doing various errands. When he first saw the two versions of Maddie side by side he was first stricken by the same assumption Jazz and f'Maddie had been under at first: that she was a ghost. Though to p'Maddie's complete and utter surprise, rather than shouting "Ghost!" and attempting to shoot her, Jack was calm at first and was only _mildly_ threatening.

Jazz eventually explained the situation to him, leaving Jack completely floored.

"So let me get this straight," he asked, looking between the two versions of his wife. "Your past self is here, because seven years ago you fell into a portal... and the only way back is to wait for a past version of Danny to bring her back. _And_ if she finds out that Danno's a – oh, right, I can't say that – if she finds out _the secret_ , her memory will be erased, but if she doesn't find out her memory won't have to be erased?"

"Pretty much," Jazz confirmed. Jack, Jazz, p'Maddie, and f'Maddie were all seated in the living room, explaining the current scenario to the eldest Fenton.

"Then why don't we just tell her the secret now to get it out of the way?" Jack asked. "That seems way simpler."

"It _is_ simpler," Jazz said, "but she doesn't want her memory tampered with, and the only way to guarantee that, is for her _not_ to learn the secret. I know this is going to be hard for you Dad, because you tend to speak your mind-"

"That's an understatement," f'Maddie muttered.

"-but you're going to have to be careful what you say while she's here." Jazz finished.

"I'll try my best, Jazzy," Jack said. "I'm a man of science, but time-travel confuses the ever-loving fudge out of me."

"Me as well," both future and past Maddie groaned in sync.

"So, now that we've got that out of the way," Jazz said, "I was wondering where she would sleep tonight? At the moment it's not like we have that many options for any additional sleeping arrangements..."

"I'll be fine in the guest bedroom," p'Maddie answered.

"Well about that..." f'Maddie said, "the guest bedroom's sort of out of commission at the moment."

p'Maddie raised an eyebrow, "How so? Did something happen to the room itself?"

"Well, no..." f'Maddie said. "Since we're trying to avoid information that could harm the timeline, I think it's best not to explain."

"That, and I'm pretty sure Elle wouldn't be comfortable with you sleeping in her room," Jack slipped up.

"Dad! What did we just talk about? _Avoid spoilers_ , alright?" Jazz said, annoyed.

"I assume I'm not supposed to ask who Elle is, correct?" p'Maddie asked.

"Yes, please forget about it," Jazz answered for her parents.

"You're right Jazzy, avoiding spoilers is difficult. I'm sorry for screwing up," Jack admitted.

"It's fine, Dad."

"So... do we still have that old air-mattress, or will I have to sleep on the couch?"

* * *

For p'Maddie, dinner at the Fenton household was usually hectic, but she couldn't remember a time when it had gotten _this_ crazy. With protests, from Jazz, Jack, and f'Maddie, p'Maddie had accidentally been introduced to Elle, a tall black-haired girl around the age eighteen or nineteen who she discovered lived with the Fentons. Nobody had explained _who_ exactly Elle was, but p'Maddie knew it wasn't her place to ask. After all, it had been her wish to avoid learning any time-threatening information so she could avoid a memory wipe.

Around the dinner table that night was a total of eight people: Jack, the two Maddies, Jazz, Danny, Sam, Elle, and her girlfriend Valerie (a girl she was certain had almost dated Danny a while back).

"-so Lancer made me completely re-do the assignment!" Elle said darkly. "I swear, that man is just trying to push me to see when I'll crack."

Danny snorted, "I doubt it. At least he hasn't abducted you and physically _forced_ you to study."

"One time, he made me memorize two entire textbook chapters to prove that I had the 'capability for success' or something ridiculously 'motivating'," Valerie chimed in.

Sam grinned, "Lancer left me alone as long as I didn't change the lunch menu."

"Well, yeah, you're terrifying, or at least your food is," Elle said.

"Tell that to what you're eating," Sam said, pointing to the organic pasta salad she had contributed to the dinner. "It's 100% vegan, all grown in my personal garden, and completely ultra recyclo-vegetarian."

"And... you just ruined it," Elle said, putting her fork down and moving to eat what remained of pork-chop on her plate.

The rest of the dinner comprised of Jazz filling Danny and Sam in about what the plans were for their wedding. Accordingly, all they had left for the general planning was to complete the seating arrangements, after that Danny and Sam were ready to wed in October (Sam wanted a summer wedding and Danny wanted a winter wedding, so they compromised).

However, near the end of the dinner p'Maddie noticed something very odd. Danny and Elle had both suddenly seemed startled, and Valerie's watch had gone off, and with no explanation all three of them had left the room in a fleeting manner. Nobody else seemed concerned, so p'Maddie figured that she shouldn't ask about it, so she remained silently curious.

"So Jazz..." Sam started, "How's the book coming along?"

"Pretty good so far," Jazz replied, "though I haven't written in a few days because I've been distracted by the wedding plans. You know me, I usually like to stick to one thing at a time so I can focus more on it."

"You're writing a book?" p'Maddie asked.

"Yes," Jazz said shortly, brushing a hand through her hair. "It's about the psychological aspects of ghosts and inter-relations between ghosts and humans."

"It sounds interesting... but what inter-relations are there besides malevolence?" p'Maddie found herself asking, thoroughly invested and equally puzzled.

p'Maddie might not have the sharpest social sensory, but she noticed when the atmosphere around the room grew very tense. It was as if she had just offhandedly said she had murdered somebody's puppy, rather than posing an innocent question.

"You'd be very surprised." Jazz said in a cold tone of voice, as if she was almost offended.

p'Maddie was on the verge of questioning her daughter's peculiar reaction, when she decided that another inquisitive question might make the tension in the room even worse. Instead, she nodded and kept her lips sewn shut.

Not long after that, Danny, Elle, and Valerie returned to the table, looking more or less the same. p'Maddie normally wouldn't have suspected anything out of the ordinary had happened if it wasn't for the small cut Elle wore above her cheek... Something truly was going on here... and if p'Maddie wanted to keep her memory, she had to do everything she could to ignore it completely, no matter how much it pained her to deprive her growing curiosity.

* * *

That night, p'Maddie slept on the couch, thought after thought swirling in her head. She had so many questions, and the only way to get the answers was to forget she ever learned the answer – a paradox within itself. What was the secret her family was keeping from her? Why did Danny, Elle, and Valerie leave dinner? Who was Elle in the first place? Why did Danny have a ghost emergency transmitter? Why was the media interested in Danny and Sam's wedding? How was the Danny from her time associated with a ghost named Clockwork? And speaking of ghosts, why had Phantom appeared in the kitchen earlier, and what was that Disasteroid thing that Brandon had told her about?

Even though she was dead-set on avoiding learning timeline threatening information, she needed _something_. She needed some clarity on something that was bothering her, after all, some might say curiosity is her fatal flaw. That's why Maddie found herself leaving the couch, sneaking into the lab, and sitting in front of the family computer. Even though the computer itself had been replaced over the years by a newer model, her account password remained the same.

She knew she shouldn't be doing this, but not knowing was driving her crazy. That's why in the middle of the night, Maddie typed into the Google search bar: " **Disasteroid** "

Wikipedia was the first web page that appeared, and Maddie clicked on it immediately.

 _The Disasteroid Incident was a worldwide global crisis coordinated by ghost-hybrid, Vlad Plasmius/Masters_ , _who attempted to use a fatal asteroid composed of ecto-ranium to secure himself as absolute ruler of the Earth over the week of July 8th-15_ _th_ _, 2007. The threat of the asteroid was resolved by Danny Phantom, who following the crisis, also revealed his status as a ghost-hybrid as famed ghost hunters' son, Daniel Fenton. The Disasteroid has been marked as a milestone in furthering the progress in human and ghost inter-relations in more ways than one and is viewed as the single event that has caused study in paranormal science to skyrocket._

Maddie stared at the computer screen blankly, what was there couldn't be correct. ' _… Danny Phantom ... revealed his status as a ghost-hybrid ... Daniel Fenton.'_ Her Danny, was _not_ a ghost. Her Danny, was not _that ghost._ Ghost-hybrids were not possible, ghosts were malevolent, evil, and _not_ human. Ectoplasm and living tissue couldn't bond together, and even if they did, the result would be disastrous! And yet... the evidence laid before her, not to mention, everything slowly made sense.

It made sense how earlier in the kitchen, Danny Phantom had left moments before Danny Fenton arrived. It made sense why the media would be interested in Danny's wedding, he was world famous now. It made sense that Danny had a ghost emergency transmitter because... he fought ghosts. Danny Phantom had never been the evil spirit that she and Jack had assumed, he had been genuinely trying to help Amity Park. Her baby boy was a hero.

More occurrences sprung up from her mind, things that she had noticed about the Danny from her time period. For instance, her Danny's aversion of ghosts, how he always appeared uncomfortable when they talked about Phantom – she had always assumed that was because he was afraid of ghosts, not because he _was_ one! How Danny's grades had been slipping as a result of him skipping school more often and not doing his homework. How every once in a while, she would swear he had some sort of cut or limp, but when she looked back, he was perfectly normal. How often was her son injured because he was out fighting other ghosts? How often... was he injured because of _her_? Maddie suddenly felt sick, she had accepted the fact that her son was a ghost, and with that revelation came another: that she had personally hurt her child.

This was what she wasn't supposed to discover, this was the reason she needed to have her memory erased. This was the family secret that they had been keeping from her, _to secure the timeline._ So did that mean, she was supposed to just go back to her own time and forget the knowledge she had just learned until the Disasteroid? Was she supposed to keep hunting her son, keep _hurting_ him? The thought killed her inside, knowing now that as soon as this was over that she would merely return to causing her son more and more pain.

p'Maddie was startled out of her own thoughts when there was a loud noise behind her from the portal doors opening. She turned and saw Danny Phantom himself floating in front of the portal, holding what she assumed was an improved Fenton Thermos. "In you go, Skulker, still haven't learned, have you?" he said boredly. "You're lucky I didn't destroy the suit this time, otherwise you'll be rebuilding it for weeks."

"You, my prey, will-"

"Go to bed because it's one a.m., okay? Goodnight, Skulker," he said, promptly closing the portal. Phantom – no, Danny turned around and noticed p'Maddie staring at him while sitting at the lab's computer desk. "What're you...?" He flew forward and scanned the computer screen, realizing what she had done, what she had learned. "You didn't."

"I did," p'Maddie said, hoarsely.

There was an apprehensive silence between the two of them before Danny started to laugh. He let his feet touch the ground and p'Maddie was taken aback as a white halo formed around his waist and split into two to change his specter appearance into human. "I'm sorry," he said, still chuckling, "but it's so much like you to just let your curiosity get the best of you."

"Danny... how-"

"I'm sure you have questions," he said, putting a hand on her shoulder, "but do you think that they can wait until the morning? We'll have more time that way too."

"I – I... sure," she stuttered.

Honestly, Maddie knew that she wouldn't get much sleep that night.

* * *

 **Happy 2018! I hope it will be a fulfilling year for all of you!**


End file.
